Scoring is up around the league

Scout.com

09/27/2008

While the Vikings have struggled to put points on the board, they might be a rarity around the league and so is their stingy defense. Scoring is up around the NFL, with last week one of the more explosive ones in NFL history.

Tony Kornheiser has barely been able to contain his excitement at the weekly pinball scores that have broken out on Monday night games this season.

But it's not just a primetime phenomenon. Scoring is up around the league, with the average of 44.1 points per game the highest mark through three weeks since 2002. That includes 747 points in Week 3, the 10th-highest single-week total in league history.

Talk about 3-4 schemes and the growing use of 11-up looks where defenses try to disguise where pressure is coming from has garnered a lot of media attention. And while this Monday's game could be a single-digit slugfest between the top two defenses in the league in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, there's no denying offenses are mostly having their way in September.

St. Louis is allowing an average of 456.7 yards per game, and nine teams are allowing at least 350.

So where is all this offensive firepower coming from?

Emerging quarterbacks in San Diego's Philip Rivers and Denver's Jay Cutler lead the league in touchdown passes (which helps mask the fact their respective defenses are two of the nine allowing all those yards).

And six rookies lead their teams in rushing. That's the most since 2001, and Chicago's Matt Forte', Tennessee's Chris Johnson, Oakland's Darren McFadden and Houston's Steve Slaton are all on pace to top 1,000 yards, which would break the league record of three rookies breaking the barrier in the same season.

Cutler's crew is the poster child for the offensive outburst, with the Broncos' 114 points tied for the fifth-most through three games since 1970.

From a Vikings perspective, they are averaging 18 points per game and giving up 17.3 per game. From a yardage standpoint, they are averaging 319.7 per game while allowing 280.7.